[Editors' Note, Aug. 12, 2024: We amended this review to clarify that the Core 7 150U is not a Core Ultra/"Meteor Lake" processor, and noted the advance-replacement aspect of the Cubi NUC's three-year warranty.]

MSI’s Cubi PCs have been popular in the mini desktop PC scene, providing users with powerful yet small and quiet devices over the years. The latest Cubi, the Cubi NUC 1M (starts at $649.99; $999.99 as tested), adopts the NUC branding that Intel handed off to its OEMs to carry on the legacy. It comes with Intel’s latest-generation mobile processors, up to 64GB of DDR5 memory, two M.2 sockets and a SATA port for storage, integrated Wi-Fi 6E, dual 2.5GbE ports, and more, all within a tiny 0.8-liter package and at a wide variety of price points. However, it's not quite as effective as the Asus NUC 14 Pro and, therefore, falls short of an Editors' Choice award.

Configurations and Design: Small Footprint, Unassuming Looks

MSI has several different SKUs (15, actually) of the Cubi NUC 1M with processors from the Intel Core 3, 5, and 7 families. You get a choice of chips, from the basic Core 3 120U (best for signage and fundamental PC functions) up to a capable 10-core/12-thread Core 7 150U (which is, despite the naming convention, a "Raptor Lake"-class chip, not one of the latest-gen "Meteor Lake" Core Ultras). Competitors like the Asus NUC 14 Pro serve up the Core Ultra 165H, which has more cores and threads, a neural processing unit, and Arc-based integrated graphics. Cubi NUC 1M options vary from preconfigured with an operating system and ready to go out of the box to barebones options where you can add your own, or higher capacity, memory (SO-DIMMS, up to 64GB) and storage. MSI stands behind the tiny cubes in both forms with a three-year warranty, comparable in length with Asus'; MSI's plan offers advanced replacement in the event of a warranty incident.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

MSI’s Cubi NUC 1M was built with care for the environment in mind. Its black plastic shell contains 42.9% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic, helping to reduce landfill waste. You'll spy MSI branding on the semi-gloss-finished case, but it is otherwise a plain black box. Measuring 5.3 by 5.2 by 1.9 inches, it’s slightly larger than the Asus NUC 14 Pro and the ECS Liva Z5 Plus but still easily fits in the palm of your hand and is also VESA mountable (100x100).

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

On the bottom, MSI uses a perforated aluminum plate to access ambient air. A small fan moves air internally around a heatsink attached to the CPU and out the rear. The fan was audible during benchmarking, but the tone isn't off-putting, nor does it get excessively loud. I can barely hear it sitting a few feet away on the desk for typical desktop functions (think Microsoft Office work, watching videos, and the like). It would be even harder to hear if mounted behind a monitor or under a desk.

Using the MSI Cubi NUC 1M: Dual NICs, Thunderbolt 4, and Antenna-Free Wi-Fi 6E

MSI packs a lot of connectivity into the Cubi NUC 1M. For networking, you get integrated Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless. On the wired side are two Intel-based 2.5Gbps Ethernet jacks. MSI says the dual configuration helps with troubleshooting and redundancy, including network segmentation and security, but doesn’t mention the ability to team them up for even faster speeds. (Is that needed in a NUC?)

The sub-liter-size box has six USB ports. Along with the power button, in front are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-A ports, an SD card reader, a 3.5mm combination microphone/headphone jack, a recessed circular power button, and a blue drive-activity light.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

On the back, the system has two more USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-A ports, and it's where you’ll find the dual Thunderbolt 4 ports. You can send power to the NUC (up to 100W) and connect monitors with them, minimizing the wires coming from the back. Two HDMI ports complete the video outputs, which, when used together, can run four monitors at up to 4K resolution and 60Hz refresh rate for the ultimate in multitasking. The two 2.5GbE ports are in between, while the AC adapter plug is on the right.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Accessing the internals is as easy as loosening the four screws on the bottom and pulling on the plate to pop it off. Inside, you’ll see the two DDR5 SO-DIMM RAM slots and two M.2 sockets supporting PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds. One M.2 socket supports 80mm modules under a heatsink (along with the CNVi2-based Wi-Fi card), while the second supports up to 42mm devices.

Testing the MSI Cubi NUC 1M: Fast, But Not the Fastest

The Cubi NUC 1M on the test bench is a pre-configured model that comes with the Intel Core 7 150U processor (12 total cores, up to 5.34 GHz turbo), Intel integrated graphics, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD, and Windows 11 Pro.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Looking online, we find the barebones kit(s) at three different prices for the three processors. The Core 3 100U SOC starts at $379.99, the Core 5 120U at $499.99, and the Core 7 150U barebones at $649.99. Our pre-configured unit (model CUBINUC1M007) goes for $999.99. You can build a more powerful desktop for that amount, but you lose the minuscule footprint. That compares well with the faster Asus, but the ECS Liva Z5 Plus was $630 in its pre-configured form. In addition to the Liva Z5 Plus and the Asus NUC 14 Pro, we’ve included results from the Dell Inspiron 24 AIO and the Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini (2023).

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and includes a storage subtest for the primary drive.

Our other three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Geekbench 5.4 Pro from Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

Finally, we run PugetBench for Photoshop by workstation maker Puget Systems. It uses Adobe's famous image editor, in Creative Cloud version 22, to rate a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks, ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

In this comprehensive set of tests, MSI's mini PC fared well. While it wasn’t the fastest, the Cubi NUC performed well across the board, leading all comparison units in the PCMark storage test. If your workflows respond better to more cores and threads, for example, rendering and encoding, you’ll want the similarly priced but more performant Asus NUC 14 Pro for better results. Our fully updated system would not run Geekbench, popping blue screens of death anytime we launched the application.

Graphics Tests

We test the graphics inside all laptops and desktops with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).

To further measure GPUs, we also run two tests from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses both low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like image rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase tests (rendered offscreen to accommodate different display resolutions) exercise graphics and compute shaders using the OpenGL programming interface and hardware tessellation, respectively. The more frames per second (fps), the better.

Our test unit again performed well for the graphics and gaming tests but fell short of the more powerful Asus NUC 14 Pro. Its 3DMark scores were doubled in Time Spy and around 60% faster in Night Raid. Sadly, we could not get GFXBench to run, but we expect similar performance gaps against the Arc-based graphics inside the Asus. Again, if your workflows include rendering or you plan to play some games, the Asus NUC is the most powerful option of all of our similarly classed machines in this lot.

Verdict: Punchy But Pricey, and Not the Fastest for It

MSI’s Cubi NUC 1M is a fine mini office PC entrant. Not only does it drive a lot of performance in a small package, but it’s quiet, too. MSI sells users a wide range of options, from a barebones unit at $649.99 to our fully loaded model (CUBINUC1M007 on their website), which is just under $1,000. The chassis allows for upgrades as well, with the SO-DIMM slots, M.2 socket, and 2.5-inch SATA bay easily accessible behind a couple of screws on the bottom.

The ECS Liva Z5 Plus we reviewed is a decent value option if you're looking for a budget mini PC. It provides adequate performance but a much more palatable $649.99 prebuilt price. Comparing the Cubi NUC 1M with the ECS Liva and Asus NUC 14 Pro, the last of those is the most powerful and has similar connectivity and expansion possibilities. While the MSI Cubi NUC should be on the shortlist, we would like to see the price point lower, perhaps to $899.99 for the prebuilt flagship, to be an even more competitive NUC product.